Loan waiver attempt to cheat farmers: Samajwadi Party

New Delhi, March 7 (IANS) Within a week of welcoming the Rs.600 billion loan waiver for farmers announced by the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government, the Samajwadi Party has now done a u-turn terming it an attempt to “divide” and “cheat” the farmers. The national executive of the Samajwadi Party, which met here Friday under the chairmanship of its president Mulayam Singh Yadav, described the loan waiver as an attempt to “divide the farmers’ community and cheating them”.

Talking to newspersons after the day-long sitting of the party’s highest decision making body, general secretary and spokesman Amar Singh said: “By announcing a loan waiver only for small and marginal farmers, the government has cheated the farmers. This is a government conspiracy to divide peasant power. We demand that without any discrimination the government should waive the loans of all farmers.”

The Samajwadi Party was the first to comment on the budget immediately after Finance Minister P. Chidambaram announced the waiver Feb 29.

Party ideologue Mohan Singh had told IANS: “The government should not have discriminated between the small and marginal farmer and the rich farmer. This way nearly half of the farmers have been left out of the waiver announced by the government. Nevertheless this is a welcome step and we welcome the waiver.”

The party national executive also regretted the rise in petrol and diesel prices immediately before the budget.

The national executive blamed the UPA government for the attacks on north Indian migrants in Maharashtra. The party’s Rajya Sabha member from Mumbai, Abu Asim Azmi, was present at the meeting.